crowds

Up early and out after some fooling around, but still early enough to beat the worst of the crowd. Waves were shifty, small and the tide was doing a number on them but the morning was beautiful and I sat away from from a pocket of people enjoying myself. The regular pod of dolphins was doing it's thing out the back and they began moving in towards the rip I was sitting next to, one shot under me and then I was utterly surrounded (and letting a few good ones slip by out of pure amazement.) They were swimming slowly by either side of me, the board was getting buffeted by their wake, I could have quite easily reached out and touched a few and one quite calmly eyeballed me as he came up out of the water. 10 seconds or so of serious crowding as they passed and that was it. Never had them within an arm's reach before and felt terrible as they headed off as 'Wow, those dorsal fins really do look like a Greenough with bit more tip' was one of the first things through my mind. Even managed to slide a few waves and put it on a rail once in a while. A really good day all told.

Being nice to marine mammals is a good thing- if you have kids or dig origami, check Peggy Oki's project here:
http://www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html

Thanks

Waves, creeks, rocks, wind and fog

And so the central Cal trip went. Solid surf, serious afternoon winds and pretty incredible weather. Surfed all the spots I could and did well, pretty much head high or better the whole way. A few spots were just too punishing to bother with, a few were an incredible amount of fun and I had the widowmaker so I was at least prepared. I surfed by myself most all of the time but those that I did encounter in the water and parking lots were all good people. South of Sur was the mellowist so made for a good warmup, the creeks in the Sur were gorgeous, one would be unridable and the next somehow working (if only for a short while), missed the Carmel beachie which I'm determined to get good one day, Santa Cruz was firing but too crowded for my blood, a jetty north of there had some crisp rights and still further north a blown out but working beachie haded me a couple of good left drops. The creeks in Whitey's turf looked pretty rocking but the paddle out alone was not working for me and it all culminated with Ocean Beach being a manageable size so the paddle out was only gruelling not impossible. Visited with the fine folks at Mollusk Surf Shop who deserve your good attentions and as I left the shop on the way out of town I ran into Manny Caro who was an utterly nice guy. I took no photos the entire trip (I'm a backward antipodean- no digi camera, no cell phone, no TV and a tendency to forget to take a camera with me. I plan on developing the two films I no longer remember what's on and getting some sort of digital camera this year though.) and reveled in the cold, undocumented joy of it all.

Dream Quiver #3

Kidman 6'0" Diamond Tail Single
Full-on 'Morning Of The Earth' MP style machine. Big Greenough flex fin, starfin, cutaway- lots of options here.

So I went to the beach early a day or so ago, very low expectations but desperately needing to get wet. It wasn't good, but wasn't awful- waist to chest (at times) and I watched some thruster guy put together a decent ride. I went south of the 5-10 person crowd to a spot that usually works and gambled on it being better as the tide filled. Thought I'd blown it as I spent some time sitting between two rips and not seeing anything much worth paddling for, but patience was a virtue and it slowly happened. Mostly small lefts with a few bigger shorter rights popping up on the edges. I rode few, felt the starfin work nicely and had a fine old time on my backhand for an hour or so before it died on me. All by myself but not really as there were fishos casting at both rips, a 3 person pack maybe 50 yards away, kids hollering on the beach, a pod of dolphins working what must have been a rich spot on the outside and a seal in the lineup with me for a while. Went to work happy

Quiver #4

8'6" Downing Makaha. It's stashed at a friend's place in Hawaii and gets ridden at Makaha. George Downing is a hero and is often hanging around the shop. In the back room Keone Downing's oversized check from his Eddie win is thumbtacked on the wall behind a rack of boards. There's always 4 or 5 of the most insane, sleek frightening 9' + full race Waimea guns in there too. It's a serious surf shop. I rode this in a good sized South Shore swell and had one of the funnest days of surf ever, even despite horrendous crowds. I rode it in small, midweek Makaha surf that was empty except for me, a couple of lifeguards and Dave Parmenter stand up paddling. Riding it is always a treat.

soon...

Central Cal. My lousy photo makes it hard to tell, but this was a solid 6-8 face. I'm back up there next month, and can't wait. Cold, empty, a little scary and astonishingly beautiful. Reminds me of parts of NZ & Victoria, except with oaks and chaparral. Good seafood and aching arms.
Meanwhile, back in LA I finally arrive at the beach and there's working waves.Not great waves, not even good waves really, but waves. I rode, I threw a couple of hard turns to see what the starfin would do and went to work happy. Can't ask for much more than that.

Winter Of Our Discontent

Well, of my discontent anyway. Weeks of no go for the surf, mostly due to my limited window for surf of late, but the swell and weather have hardly been co-operating. It's been dire, my last few go-outs have met with tiny closeouts, waves breaking in inches of water and the like. It can't last, and after getting in the water for the first time in over a week on Friday, it felt good just to be paddling around in the sun. I have had a chance to do a few tasks like ding repair, but I'm ready to surf again.

Dogged

Not my little black & white dog, but one belonging to a good friend. It's on Piha beach back home in New Zealand. This is the beach where I started surfing for real and learnt to love (?) the cold, arm-killing beachbreak. Areas of this beach are OK for dogs and the rules (clean up your dogs mess, don't let it hassle other beachgoers) are well respected. One end of the beach is off limits as there are penguin nesting sites and all too often visitors or new residents to the area disobey and baby penguins die.
This morning I went to a beachbreak. It was sunny, warm and little knee to waist waves were peeling. Unfortunately they peeled rarely and when they did it was in about knee deep water. I turned to go home and saw a man illegally walking his dog down the sand with no means of cleaning up the inevitable mess. I suppose they figure the water is so polluted a little more won't hurt. Dogged all round today.

Long Shot

If you happen to be in the vincinty of the northern portion of NSW, get a few surfs in down at Byron Pass then check this out. Dain's boards are ldownright awesome, so some shopping could be done as well.
No surfing today, the tide is high early and there's poo in the water. Getting close to a week since I've been in the water and I hate that. Need to get out of town again, maybe north while there's still a bit of swell bouncing around up there in central CA.

Frustration

Santa Monica 1925

Saturday- Decent sized lumpy closeouts with much chop at El Porto
Sunday- Smallish but with a few corners and a beautiful day at SaMo. Much crowds though.
Wednesday- Solid sized, glassy and closing out. A few very fast corners on the inside, but couldn't get on a peak to save my life.

Ah well, there's always next week.

My Achin' Head

Neal Purchase Jnr. on a Parmenter Widowmaker. Photo Kidman from 'Glass Love'

Well, it was achin' Sunday after the Festivus Saturday. Got a quick go out in Carlsbad but the wind was on it and I wasn't. Visited Univ, a really cool skateshop in Encinitas that should be supported, and then partied. The Swift Movement boards were on display and looking fine and there was a few of the Matuse wetsuits which looked great- they're made out of Limestone basically and there's a website at www.matuse.com that explains it much better. Fine entertainment too, Kidman, Purchase and Scotty Sullivan played a long and ultimately groovy set and were followed by Jalopy who are superb. Acoustic gypsy music- double bass, violin, accordian and guitar. If anything better than last year and they were great then. Unfortunately it wasn't all sensible admiration of quality products going on. Neal P kept putting elixers in my hand and I was quite merry by the time the 3rd band came on. They were very young, dressed atrociously (sequined grandma shirts!) and wound up absolutely rocking the place. They've recently discovered the late 60s/early 70s and have taken it to heart in the best possible way. I will find out their name and I recommend them highly. I don't recommend drinking with Australians but god it was fun. Until I got up to go to work on Sunday.

festivus II

Yeah, I'm late with this. It's been nuts busy and R. Kenvin just got the flyer to me. Awesome good fun last time.

starfin

And this is a starfin for those who haven't seen one. I ordered one from Cheyne Horan very recently, sent him a check to his address in Hawaii and about 2 weeks later two fins turn up. They were mailed from Australia and were simply taped together, wings at opposite ends, and my address was put on one side and the customs label on the other. No box, no packing material- just fins and tape. They arrived in perfect condition and gave the postie a good laugh. As my Dad would say 'Bloody aussies are all mad.'

Quiver #3

6'4" Cheyne Horan 'No Nose'

This board has a single starfin and is fantastic, loose but fast and drivey like a regular singlefin. Perfect step up from a fish and it has a feel all it's own. I'm happy to be on the Horan program- he's a cool guy and a truely independent thinker when it comes to surfing.
cheynehoran.com.au
solosurfer.com
Both links worth your time following.

Fitzy

Photo Albie Falzon from 'The Morning Of The Earth'

'Kirra was great. There was an early morning crew that would be there at dawn. Dickie Van Straalen, John Charlton and the Deanes. Dawn patrol at Kirra with 4 guys out- God it was crowded! So lucky to have surfed those places before the pack.'

Fitzy's the man. End of story.
Weds was little but blue skies, lack of crowds and the blue fish made it all good.

December

Corner of the complex my kid lives in up in Olympia WA

I do sort of have an excuse for slow posting what with the season and all. I spent way more time packing books and DVDs than surfing, that's for sure. I did get out on the first big swell. The beaches were closing out like crazy and the points were wall to wall so it was less fun than it should have been. That first pounding of winter is always a strangely gratifying time, although as the photo shows some were pounded in totally the wrong way (the windstorm in OR/WA did this). The right-before-Xmas swell was less than it could have been due to the tide swing, but I still got out if only to give my arms some exercise. Christmas eve morning at Santa Monica was strangely good though- I wound up in a spot where the bigger ones (chest to headhigh) would rear up like the usual dumping closeout on the outside then seemed hit a hole as they just stayed walled and rolled on through before going up and over on the inside. So I sat way out, took off on a few I misjudged and got my share of down the line runs. A fine Xmas gift I must say.

Dream Quiver #2

Neal Purchase Snr. 'Schnub'
6 ft range, here with a widow setup but the Horan winged keel works well on them we're told. I love fin options.

Thanksgiving been and gone with a few good days on the sand and a few mediocre, all so long ago now it seems. I like the cooling off, I like the threat of waves. Our first big hyped swell has hit and was not too bad. North, headhigh and over at times but oh the crowds. Then back to the city and a pass on on the South Bay closeouts. Fun to watch though, big and thumping and it's winter all over again. We're planning the next central cal trip for after the xmas onslaught.

Art

'From The Backside (Santa Barbara County)'
Peggy Oki

Man I need to update this thing more often. Saturday before last I went up to Santa Barbara to see Peggy Oki's opening at the Sojourner Cafe. She's one the original Dogtown skaters and a great person. She does these nice watercolors and is very active in a bunch of marine mammal preservation charities, so if you're in the SB area before December, check it out. Stopped at Ventura on the way up and hit C-Street for some slighty blown out chest high chunkers. Fun surf and was glad for the Matt Moore board as it was bumpy as hell. I did get a decent right to throw some turns on, and as it petered out I had to dodge a paddler with a hard turn that put me into a zippy little left closeout on the very inside- right and left on basically the same wave is a fine old time. Since then I've hit the Ocean Park beachie a few times for the usual South Bay mixture- a fair bit of mush, lots of closeouts and few gems-Monday AM certainly had it's moments and best of all, I get a new wetsuit this week so as it cools off I get more comfortable for a change!

A Wave

Photo: Jamie Brisick

"Plunging breakers are the most impressive. Their principle characteristic is very rapid release of energy from a wave moving at high velocity. There is a sudden deficiency in water ahead of the wave which causes high velocity currents in the trough as the water rushes seaward to fill the cavity beneath the oncoming crest. When there is not enough water to complete the wave form, the water in the crest, attempting to complete it's orbit, is hurled ahead of its steep forward side and lands in the trough. This curling mass of falling water will often entrap air and then, as the upper part of the wave collapses, the air is compressed. When the compressed air finally bursts through the watery cap, a geyser of water is hurled into the air- sometimes over 50 feet."

Willard Bascom, from 'Waves & Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface' 1964

No plunging breakers for me this week, but we went and hiked the Devil's Canyon trail in Angeles Crest so I am content.

Homey

Fooled myself on Weds. The long suffering Missus went shopping with a friend and I ran errands then made use of a free day to go North as the points have been good I'm told. None looked that good, next thing I'm at County Line so there I surf. All that driving and it really wasn't that great. OK size, shape not so great and sort of mushy. Longer rides for sure, but not any more fun than Friday at Santa Monica- different though, so I guess that counts and I liked the drive. Came home to the news that Porto had cleaned up and been pretty damn fun. These things happen.

doin' well

Bobby Piercy & Bunnies
Photo Glen E. Friedman- from 'Fuck You Too'

My 2 weeks out of the water ends soon and it's not been too bad as I doubt I would have been able to get in the water given the rain and the flat. I have managed to use the surfing time to do website work, hence the Glen picture.